Chantilly High took first place in the Fifth Annual Northern Virginia Theatre Festival, March 22, at Falls Church High. Competing were 12 Fairfax County schools, plus the Duke Ellington School for the Arts.
"We've won it three out of the five years," said Chantilly drama director Ed Monk. "But you're never sure, in advance, how you'll do. With the snow, we were really scrambling to put everything together. I'm really proud of the students — they did a very nice job."
Some 54 Chantilly students took part, winning the overall event and taking home awards for monologues, duet scenes, mime team, reader's theater, team improvisation, musical-theater sing-off, playwriting and cold reading. They also won technical awards for set, poster and prop design and costumes.
Chantilly took second and third place honors in three of the final five monologues and captured first place in the five final duet scenes. The school also came in first in team improvisation, mime team and novice reader's theater. It took second in standard reader's theater and playwriting and third in poster design.
Coached by former Chantilly drama director Elaine Wilson, the novice reader's theater troupe performed "Jack and his Brothers," a children's folktale involving logging, magic, a giant and a man's quest to win the hand of a princess. Reader's theater is done without benefit of a set, lighting or costumes, so the audience must imagine these things. Actors may not interact with each other and must make all the sound effects, themselves.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs